Bill Maxwell: WHERE LIFE HAS NO VALUE, PAIN FOLLOWS

St. Petersburg Times columnist Bill Maxwell recently wrote a column to talk about Washington Redskins free safety Sean Taylor, who died Nov. 27 after being shot the day before during an apparent burglary attempt in his Miami home. Click here to read article.

Maxwell expressed dismay that some black journalists, particularly sportswriters, seemed more concerned that the coverage of Taylor's death would focus more on the negative events from Taylor's past rather than his current day successes. To Maxwell, you could not discuss Taylor's death without acknowledging the elephant in the room.

Maxwell explained,

We reject the truth, but here it is: Because of the regularity at which black men kill one another, we virtually have become inured to all but the deaths of the rich and famous at the hands of another black male, a la Sean Taylor.

We have devalued our lives. We do not respect one another. In fact, dissing is expected. Our very existence is cheap. Violence against one another has become our way of life, how we solve our problems. I have said it before and I will say it again - we have been cruel toward one another for so long that we have internalized the belief that being cruel to one another is normal. Cruelty should not be accepted as normal.

Maxwell pleads with his readers that a new game plan is needed to address the challenges Taylor's death brought once again into the spotlight and ends his column with the following words,

"The carnage of black-on-black violence is a real threat to any hope of a viable future for black America. Such carnage is not a journalistic debate between white and black writers. It is a frightening reality."

Do you agree or disagree with Maxwell's view? What do you think should be done to stop the epidemic of black-on-black violence?

Click on the COMMENTS button to share your thoughts and ideas for change.

Cockroaches, pigeons and weeds. Oh my!

Global warming already deadly threat
Across the planet, scientists are seeing species in trouble and becoming extinct.
CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGE

December 6, 2007. Associated Press

BALI, Indonesia — More than 3,000 flying foxes dropped dead, falling from trees in Australia. Giant squid migrated north to commercial fishing grounds off California, gobbling anchovy and hake. Butterflies have gone extinct in the Alps.

While humans debate at U.N. climate change talks in Bali, global warming is already wreaking havoc with nature. Most plants and animals are affected, and the change is occurring too quickly for them to evolve.

“A hell of a lot of species are in big trouble,” said Stephen E. Williams, the director of the Centre for Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change at James Cook University in Australia. “I don’t think there is any doubt we will see a lot of (extinctions),” he said. “But even before a species goes extinct, there are a lot of impacts. Most of the species here in the wet tropics would be reduced to … 15 percent of their current habitat.”

Globally, 30 percent of the Earth’s species could disappear if temperatures rise 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit — and up to 70 percent, if they rise 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit, a U.N. network of scientists reported last month.

The hardest hit will include plants and animals in colder climates or at higher elevations and those with limited ranges or little tolerance for temperature change, said Wendy Foden, a conservation biologist with the World Conservation Union, which catalogs threatened species.

“In the long run, every species will be affected,” Foden said.

A few will benefit, chiefly those that breed quickly, already exist in varied climates and are able to adapt swiftly to changing conditions, scientists said. Think cockroaches, pigeons and weeds.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Species all over the world are being affected by global warming. Work is being done right here in Tampa Bay at the Lowry Zoo to combat this problem. Read more and comment at another blog post on this topic by clicking here.

Imagine it is 50 years in the future and you are officially "old." What does the world look like now? How has global warming changed your life? How has it changed the Tampa Bay area?